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Getting drunk of my ass in club seats tonight. I have a feeling they will be playing harder tonight than that they did Thursday. They had no effort until Polak scored that goal late.

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Apparently, according to the interwebs, Berglund will sit and Cam will play.

He needs to sit, though I'd rather see Kinger or one of our young guns from Peoria out there.

Agreed on Berglund needing to sit, he was a no show last game. I'm fine with Cam as long as he comes out hitting early and often. The slow starts need to stop.

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He needs to sit, though I'd rather see Kinger or one of our young guns from Peoria out there.

King was sent to Peoria for a two week conditioning assignment.

If Berglund continues to falter or not get the message, the Blues may need to send him to Peoria and call up Eller (or another offensive prospect) for a game or two just to show Berglund that he does have to give 110% to keep his job and he is not replaceable. Having to ride the AHL bus around might drive the point home.

The Blues are sending Patrik Berglund a wake-up call tonight, making him a healthy scratch in only the fourth game of the season.

Berglund has averaged 11:37 of ice time in the first three games. He has one goal, no assists and he’s a minus-2. But it’s not Berglund’s lack of point production as much it is his overall infectiveness that’s taking him out of the lineup. He doesn’t play with the aggressiveness and the simplicity, making the easy pass, that you’d expect. When he fell into this rut last year, it was attributed to Berglund’s first time playing an 82-game NHL season. But three games into the season, stamina is no longer an excuse.

- Kariya is playing on the right wing, rather than the left side. He’s played on the right side in the past and some believe he looked better on the right.

- Backes has no points through three games. The rap on Backes is that he’s a notorious slow starter, but Murray said today that it’s too early to say the trend has continued again this season.

- The last two years, we’ve heard that Tkachuk was going to play a lesser role . . . that he would play on the third and fourth lines. Three games into the season, he leads the team in points (6) and he’s playing on a line with Brad Boyes.

- Perhaps the most interesting part of tonight’s game for me will be watching Oshie play center. He played a lot of center in college and projected to be a center in the NHL. It’ll be fun to watch him skate and get into some of the dirty puck battles behind his own net.

- Janssen is playing on a skilled line with Perron and Oshie. Murray did this last year, too. He plays his enforcer on a skill line, but he doesn’t send him out for every shift. One of the other forwards will double-shift in Janssen’s spot.

- Janssen would probably prefer to play on a grinder line so that he can play his regular game, but by putting him on a skill line, the Blues are able to keep their defensive stopper unit together and have a bit of an offensive threat all each of their other three lines.

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The success of the Blues’ stopper unit has been well documented, following its success against the Detroit Red Wings. Well, the unit will have its work cut out tonight.

The Los Angeles Kings have scored 15 goals in three games, and they have one of the hottest lines in the league currently.

One area in which the Blues want to be better tonight: face-offs. After three games, the club ranks 27th in the league in face-offs, winning just 43.2 percent of their draws. The league-high is San Jose, which has won 58.5 percent of its draws.

Here’s the Blues’ breakdown:

Jay McClement: 22 wins, 29 losses (43.1 percent)

Keith Tkachuk: 23-21 (52.3 percent)

David Backes: 9-14 (39.1 percent)

Patrik Berglund: 8-10 (44.4 percent)

Andy McDonald: 5-11 (31.2 percent)

Brad Boyes: 7-4 (63.6 percent)

T.J. Oshie: 0-8 (0 percent)

Alex Steen: 2-2 (50 percent)

Brad Winchester: 0-1 (0 percent)

McClement on face-offs: “I’ve struggled. The second game against Detroit, I was really bad. I think personally I just have to bear down more, and the rest of the guys, I’m sure it’s the same way. As centermen, we need as much help as we can get . . . with our wingers winning the pucks that are up for grabs. I guess that’s the biggest thing . . .when you’re struggline, just try not to lose it clean and make sure you keep the puck in there. Tie (the opponent) up and give some time for help.”

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Blues defensive pairings:

Darryl Sydor-Roman Polak

Erik Johnson-Alex Pietrangelo

Carlo Colaiacovo-Mike Weaver

- Tyson Strachan has been recalled from Peoria but with be a healthy scratch tonight.

- Johnson played more than 25 minutes on Thursday, but Murray said today that he expects Johnson’s minutes to be more in line with the other defensemen tonight. Part of the reason for Johnson’s increased minutes Thursday was that the Blues were trailing late in the game and the Blues were looking for offense from Johnson.

- I owe defenseman Mike Weaver an apology. I mentioned in Friday’s article that he was out of position on Atlanta’s first goal. The goal was scored because of a misplay by Carlo Colaiacovo and because T.J. Oshie didn’t stick with his man in front of the net.

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